Real estate experts: TOPS helps fuel LSU apartment boom

BATON ROUGE- Real estate experts say the neighborhoods around LSU are in the middle of an unprecedented apartment construction boom and it's being fueled, in part, by the TOPS scholarship program.

Wesley Moore, of Cook, Moore and Associates, a longtime tracker of the Baton Rouge apartment market, says more than 2,400 apartment units have been completed in the LSU area and another 663 units are in the pipeline.

He says the apartment boom is being driven by rising enrollment at LSU. In fall 2010, there were just under 28,000 students. In fall 2015, more than 31,500 students were attending the school.

Moore says the state-funded Taylor Opportunity Program for Students has been one of the factors in boosting LSU's enrollment because the scholarships cover tuition costs for qualifying Louisiana high school graduates.